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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Top 20 Movies In Cardboard: Movies 6-4

Hey everybody,

Welcome to the penultimate post in ATBATT 's Top 20 Film Countdown. In checking my page stats I noticed a wide discrepancy in views for the first two installments in this series. Less than half the amount of people who read the previous post about films #14- #7 read the first post about films #20 - #14. I'm presuming most of those readers didn't read Part 1 because they just didn't know it existed. In a blog marketing blunder, I didn't title that post Part 1.

So, in case you missed them, film numbers 20-15 are here and film numbers14- 7 are here.

Presenting my next favorite movies of all time, paired with cards inspired by those films...*

6. ROCKY
Everybody knows the story of Rocky Balboa. He was the supposed lamb to the slaughter who went toe to toe against a fearsome opponent, and everyone expected him to lose.

"Yo Paulie! Your sister's with me!"

Holding his fist high above his head like a victorious boxer, Gibby, like Rocky, reminds us, "You gotta believe."

5. THIEF
Another fantastic Michael Mann film featuring hard-ass James Caan as a master thief who wants a normal life, despite the fact there's nothing "normal" in his life. Don't miss a cool cameo by Willie Nelson who plays a lifer from the big house. I also love the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.

Presenting above the L.A. Dodgers' greatest base thief. Sure, the Dodger who inspired my screen name was a daring thief extraordinaire who mastered the art of stealing home, but Wills re-wrote the book on how to play the game by resurrecting base-stealing as a bona fide offensive weapon. It's Dogers vs. Giants legend that the groundskeepers at Candlestick Park used toover-water the area around first base in an attempt to slow down the Dodger rabbit.

Here's the Dodger master thief that I grew up watching. We all used to think we were Davey Lopes when we stole base in our neighborhood games.

4. EIGHT MEN OUT
Of all the great baseball movies out there, this one is my favorite. It's a great script and I love the attention to detail that captures the era. An example is the scene where the gamblers are following the progress of the game in a whiskey and cigar room, while staff get updates on the game via ticker tape and then move cardboard players along a wall-sized cardboard diamond.

" You just know that ball's gonna go a long way. Damn if you don't feel like you're gonna live forever."

Here's the easy choice for including a card connection to the biggest gambling scandal to ever hit baseball, which also resulted in ensuring at least one baseball great would never get anywhere close to the Hall of Fame.Will Charlie Hustle ever get into the Hall? I dunno, but I suspect with that new, hot model wife of his, he's feeling like he's gonna live forever in a totally different way than Buck Weaver meant.

On one level, the Black Sox and Pete Rose scandals are about players who really should have known better, but gambled with their baseball careers and lost. Which brings me to the inclusion of our Dodger above. The Straw didn't gamble with money, but he gambled with drugs and the fast life. Darryl took a once promising career and lost everything when coke parties took precedence over celebrations at home plate. If only....

Next Post: The final top three films!

* Special THANKS go out to N.O. for inspiring the idea for this series.